Most Haunted: Series 2-8

The surprise hit of fledgling channel LivingTV, it would not be an exaggeration to suggest that Most Haunted has created a minor revolution in television.

The idea of husband and wife team Karl Beattie and Yvette Fielding, the show began following a demonstration by spiritualist medium Derek Acorah who, through his Ethiopian spirit guide (the inexplicably named "Sam"), persuaded them to believe in mediumship; the ex-Liverpool goalkeeper trainee is able to channel spirits and hold conversations with the dead.

What is most satisfying about watching Most Haunted is undoubtedly the structure of the programme and the rotating cast of characters who rock up to a historical venue in Britain (at least for the first eight series) and spend 24 hours ghost-hunting. Yvette ("Yvie" as she is known to Derek) introduces us to the location and entertaining historian Richard Felix gives us some interesting scoop on the area and its place within the feudal system of ancient Britain, before Acorah et al turn the lights out and scare each other silly. In the cold light of day, sceptic scientist Dr Ciarán O'Keeffe reviews the footage from the sterility of his lab (he's later brought into the spookings) and states the bleeding obvious.

Within any show like this, the proof of the pudding is the shared experience of the viewer and the crew as they scream and run, the advent of the live shows, replete with web cams, phone-ins and text message competitions presumably generates the cash in order to create the interceding episodes.

There are undoubted highlights across these huge 90+ episode packages - whilst no hard evidence is provided of spooks (of course!), the moments in the Pendle Hill and London’s Clerkenwell House Of Detention episodes are genuinely unsettling. Acorah left the show in Series 5 following a fraud controversy where the team had planted certain information which Derek cited as truth (only to return in Series 6, his last run, after viewers had either fallen away or demanded his reinstatement depending on whose version of the story you believe).



Extras: Behind the Scenes footage and additional footage (Most Haunted Extra) for many episodes.

Released on DVD on 23rd February 2009 by Universal Playback.

Written by Simon Cole.